User blog:Nintendoer/My initial Breath of the Wild impressions!
While I'm letting my sister start BotW, I'll give my impressions of the game after the first couple of hours. There are some very light spoilers, and nothing you couldn't find on the plateau. Freedom. That's the one word I would use to describe the game so far. Even though I'm still confined to the Great Plateau, there's just so much to do, and no particular order you need to do it all in. While you're probably supposed to talk to the Old Man first (totally the king of Hyrule; I'm calling it now. Don't tell me if I'm right or not though =P), there's nothing that says you have to. Exploration is on a level not seen before in the series, and I'm enjoying every second of it. Even in the controls and mechanics does the word "freedom" apply. So many different ways to take care of a threat; rolling a boulder down a cliff, using the massive variety of weapons (including throwing them, and using the Magnesis Rune to bash enemies with them), using fire or explosions, and probably many more I haven't yet discovered. You can climb nearly any surface, chop down trees, set grass and flowers on fire, discover wildlife underneath boulders and so much more. Two shrines down so far (fun little mini-dungeons!), and I've played around a bit with bombs and the Magnesis rune. I even got a game over due to a bomb fail. =P The first of many, I'm sure, as my first objective upon leaving the Plateau will be to travel to what I think is Death Mountain...which will likely live up to its name. Yet I did not get a game over to the immoble guardian, which was easier to take down than I thought. I've discovered some secrets that feel very Zelda-y, but I won't give any details on that yet. Overall, I'm VERY pleased so far, and am anxious to sink my teeth further into what I'm sure will be one of the most memorable and incredible experiences this wonderful series has to offer. Polishing off the Plateau While this won't end up being a full log, I at least want to finish describing my experiences in the first area of the game. There will be more spoilers than in my initial impressions, but still on the light side, not delving into specific puzzle solutions/secret locations. Wow, do I love the journey to get to the Stasis trial. If the freedom offered didn't teach you this already, the importance of stamina is made apparant during the climb up the cliff, with areas to take a break along the way. The cooking "sidequest" was handled nicely, with the perfect balance of clarity and ambiguity to give that "ah-HA!" moment upon making the dish. The same is true of the old man's hint to fell the tree at the right angle in order to cross a gap, although anyone who has watched the 2015 E3 trailer would know what to do instantly. Statis itself is a lot of fun, and I can see it having a ton of applications. From simply stopping rolling boulders to knocking them away via kinetic energy...I'm gonna be mildly disappointed if there's no Stasis golf minigame. =P Moving onto Mount Hylia, I really like the aspect of areas being potentially too hot or too cold. It's so easy for an open world to be too bland, yet this one is pulling all the stops to bring it to life. Atmospheric hazards are the icing on the cake, adding to the navigational difficulty. And while I won't go into any specifics, the weather plays a huge part in this as well. Cryosis is terrific. That makes four games now with that Sand Wand-esque item! =P Ah but I'll save it for my post detailing how previous titles inspired this game. Again, there's a lot of great potential here. All the puzzle-solving applications as ST's Sand Wand? Maybe. Clever ALBW Sand Temple usage? Possibly. New and unique uses that will make me giddy upon their discovery? Most certainly. In fact, I already found one; you can create ice cubes horizontally by using the rune on a waterfall. Thinking about it, these Courage Orbs are basically Pieces of Heart. Collect four, and you get your choice of a Heart Container or Stamina upgrade; a very, VERY welcome addition. I offered an idea in my ALBW log concerning Stamina upgrades, and all of them being necessary for some ultimate secret, but that's unfortunately not possible thanks to certain food items restoring stamina mid-use. Not that I'm complaining! I already found one seed (not on the plateau) requiring either one of these food items or a stamina upgrade to reach; I just couldn't make it with the default stamina. No details on the story events leading to the ability to depart from the plateau, but I will say that I'm already intrigued, and have an idea for which direction the story is gonna go. Also, forget the haters; I enjoy the voice acting! I've loved the idea of being able to fight the final boss at any time ever since Chrono Trigger, and it's sure to have been done to great effect here. I won't do it for this playthrough, but later on I really need to go straight there and beat the final boss. Or at least try. =P Yeah, the difficulty of this game is sky high. And I love it that way! Your own bombs deal three hearts of damage. A Guardian's laser does who-knows-how-much. And various bokoblin weapons deal a fair amount as well. This is by far the most game overs I've ever recieved on a Zelda game (playing it normally, that is =P), and admittedly about half of those are due to fatal drops or taking a dip in, um, not very warm water. Game Overs are treated basically as dying in a Xenoblade game, setting you back a short amount of time (since your last save, which isn't that far back since the game auto-saves), yet keeping important item gains like seeds. That works for an RPG. I'm not so sure it does for an action-adventure game (which, with the weapon/armor system, is almost an Action-RPG itself). I'll hold off on giving my final judgement until I beat the game. Finally, I'll conclude with pointing out just how many secrets the Great Plateau has. You're only required to visit the four shrines, but it has so much more to offer, including a surprise overworld boss (yay!). There are treasure chests to find in every nook and cranny, and the search for seeds has already left me impressed at this early stage, some of which involve a bit of vague puzzle-solving to get. No details on the screenshot provided, but this was when I realized just how great the seed hunt was gonna be. I've spent a long time just searching everywhere I could think of on the plateau, yet I almost guarantee I've missed something. This game is going to be one wild ride, that's for sure, and I'm looking forward now more than ever to seeing what it has in store. Thanks for reading, and happy adventuring! Category:Blog posts